HELL IN A VERY SMALL PLACE: SIEGE OF DIEN BIEN PHU. The classic by Bernard B. Fall on the most famous siege battle of the 20th century is presented in a detailed hour-by-hour account. Vietnam; IndoChina

HELL IN A VERY SMALL PLACE: SIEGE OF DIEN BIEN PHU. A classic by Bernard B. Fall. Fall was forty when he was killed in South Vietnam in 1967. The author of the classic STREET WITHOUT JOY, he wrote for the New York Times and the Washington Post.

The 1954 battle of Dien Bien Phu ranks with Stalingrad and Tet for what it ended (imperial ambitions), what it foretold (American involvement), and what it symbolized: A guerrilla force of Viet Minh destroyed a technologically superior French army, convincing the Viet Minh that similar tactics might prevail in battle with the U.S.

Dien Bien Phu was a French frontier garrison fortified by 16,000 French troops on the border between Laos and North Vietnam, and 180 miles from the nearest possible reinforcements. Surrounded by 60,000 communist troops, the heroic defenders fought for nearly two months before running out of supplies and being completely over run. In Fall's captivating prose, the most famous siege battle of the century in presented in a detailed hour-by-hour account that the reader can not put down. 568 pages. 48 telling photos. Softcover.

REVIEWS:

"Fall's book achieves the closest possible synthesis of previous research and known documents with the personal, impartial, but profoundly human contribution of a good historian."___Paul Mus, New York Times Book Review

"The definitive work, one destined to be a classic ?"___David Schoenbrun, Saturday Review
"A thorough account of a brave, sanguinary battle that has since turned out to have immense historic importance."___New Yorker